FAIR Angry about Exposure: Help Stop the Hate!

Yesterday, the Sleuth blog at the Washington Post was the first to report that a full page ad exposing the truth about the anti-migrant group FAIR was run in political newspapers on the Hill.

A coalition of pro-immigration groups is running a full-page ad today in the Capitol Hill newspapers Roll Call and Politico to protest a lobbying blitz this week by the anti-immigration group FAIR, the Federation for American Immigration Reform.

The ad, paid for by America’s Voice and the Service Employees International Union, among others, asks, “When Did Extreme Become Mainstream?” And it notes FAIR has been “designated as a HATE GROUP by the Southern Poverty Law Center.”

Since the story broke, FAIR (which has been designated as a HATE GROUP by the Southern Poverty Law Center) has responded to the ad. The group has officially responded with a statement that FAIR is the victim of a “smear” campaign. And also claimed that:

“this coalition of special interest groups uses inflammatory language and stock photos of individuals who have no association with FAIR to incite hatred against anyone who has the audacity to oppose their views on immigration policy.”

But, as Dave Neiwert at FireDogLake notes: “It isn’t a “smear” by definition if everything that’s said is true.” He also had this to say of FAIR’s official response to the ad (which is included in the post):

Notice what’s missing: Any mention of the actual facts in the article. The only thing that’s “ugly” is the very real quotes from FAIR leaders and officials. Moreover, its listing as a hate group by the SPLC — which is not, by any stretch of the imagination, a “radical organization” — goes utterly unmentioned.

Below is a video from America’s Voice exposing FAIR for what it really is…